There are quite a few of us doing the 5:2 diet at my work, so conversation at work often revolves around our diet and what we are eating.

I tell you we must be saints to have a break in our staff room. One of our workmates Shirley piles the table high with goodies and we have to try and resist on our fast days. Mind you she may think twice now she is also doing the 5:2 diet herself, although I wouldn't bet on it.

Anyway I digress, Karen was the one who told me about this fabulous idea. You simply whizz up cauliflower and then gently cook it, season it and use it in the place of rice. Of course I used my Vitamix to whizz up my cauliflower in 3 batches but if you have a standard blender or food processor, then just do a little at a time.

The peppers in this dish were from Cooks and Co and I don't remember having such nice jarred red peppers before. Lovely big peppers that were succulent and sweet and I was surprised at how low in calories they were. Two large peppers for only 23 calories.

I will be using these in a salad soon or maybe just on toast, since they are so good.

March 01, 2013

A super low calorie meal that is satisfying and packed with flavour, Only 137 calories per serving.

Ingredients

436g/1 small cauliflower

1 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 cm piece fresh ginger, finely chopped or grated

1 onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 courgettes (zucchini), chopped

100g/ 2 drained roasted peppers (rinsed if stored in oil)

80g sweetcorn

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp turmeric

300ml (with 1 cube) vegetable stock

a good grinding of salt and black pepper

4 large salad tomatoes

Instructions

1. Whizz the cauliflower up in a vitamix/food processor until fairly fine. Set it aside until you need it.2. Saute the onion, garlic and ginger in the olive oil until the onion is soft and translucent.3. Add the celery and carrots and saute gently until the carrots are tender4. Next add the courgette and cook for another couple of minutes.5. Spoon in the spices and mix well.6. Pour in the cauliflower and mix until well coated in the spices.7. Add the stock, cover and simmer gently for 15 - 20 minutes.8. Add the peppers and sweetcorn and mix through.9. Season with salt and pepper.10. Chop the tomatoes in quarters and add to the top of each dish as you serve it

I am submitting my rice dish to Credit Crunch Munch, a monthly challenge set by Helen over at Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla over at Fab Food 4 All. My rice dish was very frugal. I made it from what I already had in my kitchen. The peppers were free and I used up my last carrot and courgette.

Disclosure: I received a vitamix and the peppers free for review purposes. I was not required to write a positive review and any opinions expressed are my own.

Just from looking at this, it's hard to tell it's not rice WITH cauliflower, but rice FROM cauliflower. I cannot WAIT until I can splash out for a Vitamix (must wait 'til after taxes) but I'll certainly be trying this!

I've heard about it before but never tried doing it. There's also Cauliflower pizza base which you make with the 'rice' and some kind of stringy cheese (e.g. mozzerella) I keep meaning to try because I've seen a few recipes and they all look fabulous!

I can vouch for the fact that this works - Paul Merrett did it at a Total Greek event and it was lovely. Didn't taste of overcooked cauliflower either. Also Saf use it in their raw sushi a lot I think. Now I have a food processor I must try it myself. Thanks for reminding me

That looks and sounds delicious- such an underused veg too! Certainly doesn't look like diet food, unreal how low in calories it is. Look forward to trying this out, don't have many cauli recipes. Usually just add to a curry/fritter type thing/crudite, raw.

I've been using this approach to make cauliflower "couscous". It's totally my new favourite thing. Low-cal or not it's tasty and incredibly versatile. I confess I do find the cauliflower pizza base concept horribly wrong, but that's just me... and perhaps I'm being too quick to judge having never tried it. :)

What a great idea. It's amazing just how much food you can actually eat for few calories if you're creative! My hubby and I have been doing the 5:2 diet for 4 weeks now (Mon & Tues) back to back and it's amazing. It's much easier when there are lovely recipes like this to keep us on track.

That's a super recipe, Jacqueline! Love the idea and your presentation is so colorful and healthy looking.This is the first I've heard of the 5.2 diet and when I clicked on it and saw the word FASTING, I thought, uh uh. Not for me. The most I've ever done was a cleansing diet years ago. Hated every minute of it. Would rather watch calories any day. :)

The name can be misleading Barbara, it is more about restricting your calories twice a week, not so hard when you can eat what you like (within reason) on the other five days. Everyone is talking about it here in the UK.

Of course Librarians are clever Jac, wouldn't dispute it for a moment ;-)

This cauliflower idea is pure genius and your meal looks nutritious and delicious for any meal - fast day or not. I sit right next to the biscuit / cake corner at work and it's funny how everyone brings in particularly yummy things to eat when I'm on a fast day.

I love cauliflower rice, too, although I usually eat it raw. I have yet to try to cook it. I also haven't tried to chop it with my vitamix (I usually use my food processor), but since I am worried about my processor dying, I am curious how the vitamix compares. For other veg substitutes, zucchini noodles are one of my favourites for pasta. :)

Hey Helen, I have since found that there is way too much in a quarter of this casserole full for one, I think there are actually 6 portions, so even less calories.I look forward to seeing what you do with it.

I loved your Moroccan style potatoes, but was less impressed by this.It's possible I processed the cauliflower too much, but it seemed to have an odd texture to it. The flavour was okay, and it made a filling(ish) accompaniement to fish, but was a tad dissappointed. Still! You can't win 'em all and plenty of people have enjoyed it, so it's probably just me... Thanks for the other recipes & 5:2 hints

I didn't mind the texture at all, maybe yours needed cooked a little longer. It's definitely not as good as the Moroccan style potato bake, but there isn't much that can beat that dish. This is great for being so low calories. I can eat a bowl of this instead of two crispbreads with a triangle of soft cheese for the same calories. So this wins that race.

I cooked this for dinner last night and I thought it was fantastic! I am not on a diet so I topped it with a fried egg which worked brilliantly. I am in love with cauliflower rice, its great and I love the spices in yours. Great stuff so thanks!

Tried this out today but without the sweetcorn/courgettes/celery and with a few tablespoons more oil and chilli (2) and a handful of brown rice but it was really really good! Definitely one I'll be experimenting with more later :D

I love reading comments, so thank you for taking the time to leave one. Unfortunately, I'm bombarded with spam, so I've turned on comment moderation. I'll publish your comments as soon as I can and respond to them. Don't panic, they will disappear when you hit publish. Jac x